Theodotus of Ancyra (bishop)

"Radiant and paradoxical is the subject matter of the present festival [Christmas]: radiant, because it has brought salvation to all men; paradoxical, because it ran counter to nature's law. For nature no longer acknowledges a virgin after childbirth, but grace] made her parent and kept her virgin; grace made her a mother and did not violate her virginity...O earth unsown that flowered forth fruit that saves! O Virgin who surpasses Eden's garden if delights!...The Virgin is made more glorious than paradise. For paradise was cultivated by God; but Mary cultivated God Himslef according to the flesh, willing as He did to be united to human's nature."

"In place of the virgin Eve, mediatrix of death, a virgin has been filled with God's grace to be the minister of life; a virgin has been fashioned possessing the nature of a woman, but without part in her fault (malice); a virgin, innocent, without blemish, all-immaculate, inviolate, spotless, holy in soul and body, who has blossomed as a lily from among thorns, unlearned in the evil ways of Eve...When yet unborn she was consecrated to God, and when born was offered to God as a sign of gratitude...Clothed with a divine grace as with a garment, her soul filled with a wisdom divine, in heart wedded to God, she received God in her womb, [she who is] in fact the Mother of God..."